differentiation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or process of differentiating.
2. n. The state of becoming differentiated.
3. n. Mathematics The process of computing a derivative.
4. n. Biology The process by which cells or tissues undergo a change toward a more specialized form or function, especially during embryonic development.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The formation of differences or the discrimination of varieties.
2. n. Specifically Any change by which something homogeneous is made heterogeneous, or like things are made unlike; especially, in biology, the evolutionary process or result by which originally indifferent parts or organs become differentiated or specialized in either form or function; structural or functional modification; specialization. Thus, the primitively similar appendages of a lobster undergo differentiation in bleing specialized, some into mouth-parts, some into prehensile claws, others into walking- or swimming-organs, etc.
3. n. In logic, discrimination; the act of distinguishing things according to their respective differences.
4. n. In mathematics, the operation of finding the differential or differential coefficient of any function.
5. n. In geology, the general process by which a parent mass of molten rock of intermediate composition, standing in a reservoir for long periods of time, breaks up or differentiates into several fractional derivatives both more acidic and more basic. While the process is obscure and inadequately understood, it accounts for the contrasted lavas which often come from the same eruptive center at different times. Geikie, Textbook of Geol., p. 710.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of differentiating.
2. n. The act of distinguishing or describing a thing, by giving its different, or specific difference; exact definition or determination.
3. n. The gradual formation or production of organs or parts by a process of evolution or development, as when the seed develops the root and the stem, the initial stem develops the leaf, branches, and flower buds; or in animal life, when the germ evolves the digestive and other organs and members, or when the animals as they advance in organization acquire special organs for specific purposes.
4. n. The process of separation of cooling magma into various rock types.
5. n. The process of determining the derived function of a function.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of differentiating.
2. n. The act of distinguishing or describing a thing, by giving its different, or specific difference; exact definition or determination.
3. n. The gradual formation or production of organs or parts by a process of evolution or development, as when the seed develops the root and the stem, the initial stem develops the leaf, branches, and flower buds; or in animal life, when the germ evolves the digestive and other organs and members, or when the animals as they advance in organization acquire special organs for specific purposes.
4. n. The supposed act or tendency in being of every kind, whether organic or inorganic, to assume or produce a more complex structure or functions.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a discrimination between things as different and distinct
2. n. (biology) the structural adaptation of some body part for a particular function
3. n. the mathematical process of obtaining the derivative of a function